College Sports Blog

The USA Today Coaches Poll was released late Thursday morning with the usual amount of surprises and grumblings from college football fans about team placements.

One of the bigger talking points was Texas Tech’s lone vote in the poll. The Red Raiders were the final team mentioned in the receiving votes category behind Northern Illinois’ two votes and Tennessee, Missouri and Florida International’s respective three votes.

Texas Tech head coach Tommy Tuberville is one of five Big 12 coaches on the voting committee this season, but he did not vote for the Red Raiders. By rule, coaches can’t vote for their own teams in the coaches poll.

Coaches’ votes are private until the final poll but the odds are the vote came from one of the other four Big 12 coaches on the committee in Baylor’s Art Briles, Iowa State’s Paul Rhoads, Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops and West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen.

Each opposing team could get something more out of defeating a Texas Tech team that is ranked or receiving votes over a Texas Tech team that isn’t.

On top of that, two Big 12 head coaches have Texas Tech connections.

Holgorsen coached at Texas Tech from 2000 to 2007 and rose all the way to co-offensive coordinator with Mike Leach at the end of his tenure. Briles earned his bachelor’s degree from Texas Tech and stayed in the West Texas region to earn his master’s and had a very successful high school coaching career in the region before migrating to Stephenville.

Briles returned to Texas Tech to coach running backs in 2000 as his first college coaching gig and stayed until 2002 when Houston hired him as its head coach.

There’s no way of knowing who voted for Texas Tech but some coaches are more likely than others.